the word is decEivers ( English is a tricky language sometimes). When I wrote that title it was -12C and, with the windchill, the thermometer bottomed out at -24C, which for Toronto is cold. However there were squirrels climbing over the trees and along the fence at the bottom of the garden, behaving much as they do in the summer. In a previous blog I'd written that these small creatures anticipate weather changes and so yesterday I posed the question on my blog, in public so to speak, whether I was right or wrong. You be the judge. This morning I went for the usual walk with my dog through the ravine. If she doesn't go she nags and doesn't eat properly. My car told me the temperature was -11C, but there was no wind at all and the sun was shining, oh so brilliantly. We parked behind one of the colleges of T.O.'s university, which borders on a ravine complex. To get to this we have to cross a stream about six feet wide on a path that leads away from the carpark, through some trees behind a junior school. It's very shallow at that point and, usually, Maggie, my dog, has no problem fording it. However today she refused to cross because it was covered with a sheet of ice. I should explain that she's been sick with a virus which has made her dizzy and unsteady on her feet. She's not dumb and after she tested the ice with one paw, she gave me a look and backed away. Nothing would change her mind so we had to get to the ravine through a roundabout route that involved walking through pretty deep snow, in the shadows of trees that cut out the sunlight. I won't say it was hard work, but it was not all that easy to traverse and things were not made better by the fact that little or no light meant we felt a chill. We turned a corner and came to a wide open space on which soccer is played, called Proctor's Field. Dogs are not allowed to run free on here so we sidled along its edge, in the lee of a building that houses a swimming pool. As we passed the end of a wall we came into bright, brilliant sunlight. In front there was an expanse of fresh snow with a crusty covering caused by the overnight dip in temperature. The air was still. The trees surrounded the field formed a dark green backdrop. Just then the music I had been listening to on my Ipod changed to the largo from Beethoven's Triple Concerto. This is one of those great pieces of music that exemplify the best of everything in people and nature, and which epitomizes that elusive elixir, optimism, which is really what makes the world go round. In front of me I could see Maggie walking with a bounce in her step that I had not seen for a couple of weeks. The snow which supported her walk, and so made her going easier, reflected multiple sparkling coloured lights, thanks to the sunlight. For a sublime moment my senses were filled with happiness...my old dog looked young again, a plethora of beautiful images, framed in a pure white background, was spread before me and my ears rang with the best of sounds. The squirrels were right. The weather has changed for the better. They knew it would...thanks to inbuilt receptors. We and they are not so far apart. We just have not learnt to read our unconscious runes...yet.